Stat Line of the Day: April 9th

J. McGee (WAS): 15 points (7-10 FG, 1-7 FT), 10 rebounds (5 offensive), 6 turnovers vs. Celtics

Wizards center JaVale McGee (see left) had a very peculiar night last night--the type of night that inspired us to start Stat Line of the Day in the first place.  Half of McGee's line was fantastic, with 10 boards--including five on the offensive glass--and 70% shooting from the floor.  The other half of his statistics were just terrible: 1-7 from the charity stripe and six turnovers.  The first McGee shows a sturdy, dependable big-man who can score in the paint while defending the interior on the other end.  The second McGee looks just plain sloppy, missing six of hi seven free throws, and wasting six of his teams' possessions.  Granted, he was playing against the Celtics' deep and experienced frontcourt.  The tough opposition makes the good half of his line all the more impressive, while making the sloppy half closer to understandable.  The one big problem, though, is the free throw shooting.  Sure, McGee has always been a below-average free throw shooter: 62% career, 58.3% this season.  1-7 is a totally different level of sloppy, though.  Shaq could get away with missing every free throw he took because he was one of the most dominant centers ever.  McGee doesn't have the resume to justify his sloppiness, though, and it would have cost the Wizards had they been in a close game.

Honorable Mentions:

M. Maloney (CIN): 1.2 IP, 6 H, 7 R (7 ER), 3 HR against, 2 2B against vs. Diamondbacks

Cincinnati Reds reliever Matt Maloney had a miserable outing in Arizona, adding insult to injury as the Diamondbacks routed the Reds 13-2.  They were only down five runs when Maloney entered in the 7th inning, but he promptly gave up a home run to Justin Upton.  He came back out for the 8th, and it all went downhill from there.  Maloney gave up five hits, four of them for extra bases, to the D-Backs in the 8th inning, allowing six more runs before mercifully being pulled.  His first outing of the season consisted of one perfect inning--only 10 pitches, in fact.  Last night was the exact opposite for Maloney, who had to throw 40 pitches to get his ERA to balloon from 0.00 to 23.62.  Quite a night in the desert.

Cleveland Indians 4th Inning: 10-12, 10 R, 2B, HR vs. Mariners

A pretty impressive top of the 4th from the Indians, who bounced starter Matt Vargas with six hits and a sacrifice fly to start the inning.  They continued the onslaught against Tom Wilhelmsen, scoring five more runs on four hits, including a home run by Travis Hafner.  14 men came to the plate in the frame; two drew walks and the rest compiled a tidy .833 batting average.  The one out that Vargas did record in the 4th still drove in a run: a sac fly by super-prospect Matt LaPorta.  Hitters have a .333 batting average against Vargas this season, helped immensely by that one near-perfect inning from the Indians.